Monday, July 2, 2012

It wasn't a good day on the Sunday shows for Barack Obama's Chief of Staff, Jack Lew. Then again, he wasn't exactly set up for success. In this exchange with CNN's Candy Crowley, Lew consistently dodged questions about why his boss asserted Executive Privilege relative to documents sought by Congress that point to a coverup in Fast and Furious.

The interesting part of this exchange comes at the 3:00 mark (h/t Daily Caller). Note how Crowley asks Lew if Executive Privilege was asserted because Obama was consulted on Fast and Furious, which is slowly being revealed as a mass murder scheme orchestrated at the highest levels of the Justice Department. Lew's response?

Essentially, no comment.

Many times, 'no comment' is a close cousin of invoking the fifth amendment. As for any consultations that the president may have been involved in relative to Fast and Furious, consider the video put out last week by House Oversight Committee member, Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC). In light of Lew's refusal to answer the question about Obama being consulted on Fast and Furious, watch Gowdy explain the three types of Executive Privilege.

Note: the first type of EP involves conversations between Obama and his closest advisers; the second type of EP involves conversations among Obama's closest advisers in which one such person is tasked with communicating something to the president; the third type of EP doesn't apply to Congress and doesn't involve Obama's closest advisers or Obama. Yet, according to Gowdy, this third type of EP is the one the administration is asserting.

Question: If the administration is asserting a type of Executive Privilege that involves conversations that DON'T include the President or his closest advisers, why couldn't Jack Lew answer Crowley's question by saying there were no consultations with Obama about Fast and Furious?